My friend has decided to run a 4e Dark Sun game, and I'm intrigued by the idea of playing a Monk of some kind in it. However, I recall hearing some less than favorable things about the class.
As the class stands now, is it any good? Does it have the potential for good once phb3 comes out? Does it synergize well with any other classes, for multiclassing or hybridization?
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I find they are subpar to the rogue in that they try to do similar things and rogues are better at all of them.
They do low damage about the same as a Sorcerer except only to one target most times. They have the same AC as a rogue with no real option to increase it but they have to stay stuck in melee to use their powers.
In short they are fragile, low damage Strikers and PHB3 had better make them much better than they are.
I've been playing a Monk, and the one build we've gotten so far is basically a striker/controller combination. It uses Dex backed by Wis, and since Str is listed as another important ability for the class (but nothing so far actually uses Str) I assume the higher damage build will be Dex/Str.
Many of the ecounter and daily powers have multiple targets, and Flurry of Blows adds Wis damage (for this build) to any target.
Monk Unarmed Strike is +3 Prof, d8, off-hand. I've found that my damage is output of d8+Dex+Wis is respectable, but less than a "pure" striker.
It is definitely sub-optimal against solos, more targets are better.
Until we get the complete class, it's quite underpowered. Mainly due to lack of support. The class is kinda designed to be adjacent to multiple enemies at once, yet lacks the defense to do so. We're getting another monk article this month, hopefully we'll get some feat support for it.
We have a monk in our group, and he's been...interesting. Definitely not a super-high damage striker, but his mobility is ungodly. Enemies can not run away from him. He can outpace anyone, get through any amount of difficult terrain, it's ridiculous.
We have a monk in our group, and he's been...interesting. Definitely not a super-high damage striker, but his mobility is ungodly. Enemies can not run away from him. He can outpace anyone, get through any amount of difficult terrain, it's ridiculous.
In the few levels I've had one in game I never saw it be more mobile than the Rogue (Artful dodger). Certainly monks are mobile, but they are no where near mobile enough over other mobile Strikers to make up for their low damage and squishiness.
In the few levels I've had one in game I never saw it be more mobile than the Rogue (Artful dodger). Certainly monks are mobile, but they are no where near mobile enough over other mobile Strikers to make up for their low damage and squishiness.
This. Really hoping the new monk article this month addresses some of these issues in the form of feats or powers.
In the few levels I've had one in game I never saw it be more mobile than the Rogue (Artful dodger). Certainly monks are mobile, but they are no where near mobile enough over other mobile Strikers to make up for their low damage and squishiness.
Thirded. A monk has ungodly speed given an open field. My elf monk can move 9 squares and ignore difficult terrain for all of it as a move action for example (Drunken monkey Movement power). Which has come in handy, if there is somewhere you want to be on the field of battle you have the movement to get there. The problem is once you get into melee you lack a lot of the shift powers that other classes have to get out of it again.
Also being faster than the defender isn't a good thing. Having a high initiative and high speed means you can easily end up stuck far away from the rest of the party where you will soon die due to low defenses.
Also they have less class features than other classes. They get unarmed strike and unarmored defense but those are the equivalent of a longsword and leather armor proficiency. Right now their only real class features are +1 to Fort at each tier and their flurry of blows which is only WIS damage once per round on their turn when they hit.
Last edited by flashedarling; 11-05-2009 at 02:40 PM..
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